National Security Surveillance Research Articles

PENGGUNAAN DRON OLEH PENGUATKUASA UNDANG-UNDANG DALAM MENJALANKAN TUGAS HARIAN: ISU UNDANG-UNDANG DI MALAYSIA

The use of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles by law enforcement agencies began more than 10 years ago when the country's technology in this field was still in its infancy. Now, drones are increasingly used in law enforcement, especially for the purpose of national security surveillance and can also help reduce logistics problems. However, how effective is the use of drones in helping enforcement officers in Malaysia? Therefore, this study focuses on the discussion of legal issues in the use of drones in assisting enforcement officers as well as the facial recognition process of suspects in Malaysia. This study involves library research. The results of this study found that the use of drones is indeed used by law enforcement in their daily duties and even civilians are also allowed to use drones for leisure activities subject to the conditions determined by the authorities. Nevertheless, the legal issue regarding the use of drones should be examined to avoid any misuse of drones that bring harm to the public and even national security.

"Ethically contentious aspects of artificial intelligence surveillance: a social science perspective".

Artificial intelligence and its societal and ethical implications are complicated and conflictingly interpreted. Surveillance is one of the most ethically challenging concepts in AI. Within the domain of artificial intelligence, this study conducts a topic modeling analysis of scientific research on the concept of surveillance. Seven significant scholarly topics that receive significant attention from the scientific community were discovered throughout our research. These topics demonstrate how ambiguous the lines between dichotomous forms of surveillance are: public health surveillance versus state surveillance; transportation surveillance versus national security surveillance; peace surveillance versus military surveillance; disease surveillance versus surveillance capitalism; urban surveillance versus citizen ubiquitous surveillance; computational surveillance versus fakeness surveillance; and data surveillance versus invasive surveillance. This study adds to the body of knowledge on AI ethics by focusing on controversial aspects of AI surveillance. In practice, it will serve as a guideline for policymakers and technology companies to focus more on the intended and unintended consequences of various forms of AI surveillance in society.

Nutrition and Health Status of Elderly People in Bangladesh: Evidence From a Nationwide Survey

Abstract Objectives Though Bangladesh is passing through demographic, epidemiologic and nutritional transitions, national estimates on nutrition and health status of the elderly population are largely unknown. We aimed to determine the status of selected health and nutrition indicators among the elderly population in Bangladesh. Methods For the first time in Bangladesh, we included elderly population (≥60 years old females and males) as a separate population group in the national food security and nutrition surveillance round 2018–2019. We collected data on dietary diversity, nutritional status, behavioral risk factors of non-communicable diseases, blood pressure, and self-reported chronic diseases from 4,818 elderly people (48% female) living in 82 clusters (57 rural, 15 non-slums urban, and 10 slums) randomly selected from eight administrative division of Bangladesh. Results Majority (59% in rural, 53% in non-slum urban, and 69% in slums) of elderly people were consuming an inadequately diverse (4 or less food groups out of 10) diet. Overall, 89% of elderly people were malnourished (20%) or at risk of malnutrition (69%). The highest prevalence of malnutrition was in Mymensingh division (37%) followed by Sylhet division (27%). The prevalence of obesity was 5%, 16%, and 11%, in rural, non-slum urban, and slums, respectively. The national prevalence of smoking, smokeless tobacco consumption, physical inactivity was 18%, 52%, and 38%, respectively. There was a high burden of hypertension (49% in rural, 53% in non-slum urban, and 39% in slums). Overall, 16% of elderly people had heart diseases, 14% had chronic respiratory diseases, 3% had kidney diseases, 9% had diabetes, 8% had stroke, 0.5% had cancer and 1.4% had mental health problems. Conclusions The government of Bangladesh should design and implement health and nutrition programs among the elderly population. The regional differences in the prevalence of health and nutrition indicators should be considered while designing such programs. Funding Sources Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh

Differences in Estimates of Minimum Dietary Diversity by Using the New and Old Definition: Evidence From Bangladesh

ObjectivesMinimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is an indicator to assess feeding practices of children aged 6–23 months. The WHO and UNICEF have recently revised the definition of MDD, replacing ‘≥4 out of 7 food groups (MDD-7FG)’ with ‘≥5 out of 8 food groups (MDD-8FG)’. In the new definition, breast milk was considered as a separate food group. We aimed to estimate the implications of this change on the prevalence of MDD at the national and regional levels of Bangladesh. MethodsWe analyzed data from the national food security and nutrition surveillance round 2018–2019. MDD was defined and calculated according to the WHO-UNICEF guidelines. The prevalence of MDD-7FG and MDD-8FG was estimated and stratified by gender, age groups, place of residence, division, and wealth index. The difference between the prevalence between MDD-7FG and MDD-8FG was presented as percentages. ResultsCompared to the older definition, the overall prevalence of MDD was lower among 6 to 23 months old children in Bangladesh (46.2% vs. 54.7%). The absolute percentage point difference between the estimates (MDD-8FG vs. MDD-7FG) was higher among the boys (44.0% vs. 53.2%), 12–23 months aged old children (53.4% vs. 63.4%), children living in the non-slum urban areas (30.2% vs. 42.4%) and Dhaka division (42.0% vs. 56.3%), and among the children of middle-class families (40.3% vs. 57.6%). ConclusionsThe new definition and the inclusion of breast milk intake as a new food group led to a decrease in the prevalence of minimum dietary diversity in Bangladesh. The country program needs to emphasize the continuation of breastfeeding until two years of age of the children. Moreover, the changes in the definition of MDD and the resultant consequence should be kept in mind while performing trend analysis of dietary diversity in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Funding SourcesMinistry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh.

What's In It For Us? Benevolence, National Security, and Digital Surveillance

AbstractThis article challenges suggestions that citizens should accept digital surveillance technologies (DSTs) and trade their privacy for better security. Drawing on data from nine EU countries, this research shows that citizens’ support for DSTs varies not only depending on the way their data are used but also depending on their views of the security agency operating them. Using an institutional trustworthiness lens, this research investigates three DST cases—smart CCTV, smartphone location tracking, and deep packet inspection—that present escalating degrees of privacy risk to citizens. The findings show that the perceived benevolence of security agencies is essential to acceptability in all three cases. For DSTs with greater privacy risk, questions of competence and integrity enter citizens' assessments.

COVID-19 Surveillance

Any successful pandemic response involves tracking the spread of disease. In this regard, contact tracing is nothing new. What differentiates COVID-19 surveillance is its unprecedented use of technology. The potential for continuous and near-universal digital contact tracing has raised concerns about privacy and civil liberties more readily associated with national security surveillance, chilling the uptake of disease-tracking technologies in the United States. Yet public health surveillance and national security surveillance are two distinct paradigms with different values and governing norms. Ideally, public health surveillance is cooperative, minimizes data collection, and limits subsequent use. National security surveillance, by contrast, operates coercively, maximizes data collection, and imposes relatively few limits on the use of lawfully collected data. At first blush, digital contact tracing resembles national security surveillance because both depend heavily on technology. Yet despite these superficial similarities, COVID-19 surveillance is a public health initiative. This Article asks the important and novel question: Can we use technological tools similar to those found in national security surveillance while cultivating the trust necessary for successful public health surveillance? We respond with a cautiously optimistic yes and offer our recommendations.

How Republicans and Democrats Strengthen Secret Surveillance in the United States

The purpose of the paper is to assess the relationship between secrecy and transparency in the pre- and post-Snowden eras in the United States. The Author analyzes, from both political and legal perspectives, the sources and outcomes of the U.S. politics of national security with a special focus on domestic and intelligence surveillance measures. The core argument of the paper is that, due to the role of the executive which has always promoted the culture of secrecy, there is no chance for the demanded transparency in national security surveillance, despite the controlling powers of the legislative and judiciary. As the analysis proves, the United States in the post-Snowden era seems to be the most transparent and secretive state, at the same time.

Charts, Indexes, and Files: Surveillance, Information Management, and the Visualization of Subversion in Mainline Protestantism

ABSTRACTThis essay explores how some Americans came to view the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) and, more broadly, ecumenical mainline Protestantism as a threat to the national security interests of the United States. By focusing on the efforts of various elements in the federal bureaucracy—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Chemical Warfare Service, and Military Intelligence—and the work of average Americans to investigate the FCC, the essay examines how techniques of surveillance and information management helped shape the way Americans came to understand religion in the twentieth century. The essay develops three interconnected themes: first, the rise of America's national security surveillance establishment in the United States after World War I; second, the development of new methods of information management and visualization in corporate and state bureaucracies; and, third, the rise of voluntary, private surveillance in the wake of World War I. Through these three themes, the essay highlights how a network of federal bureaucrats, business leaders, and average citizens used graphs, indexes, and files to interpret mainline, ecumenical Christianity as a threat to domestic security in the United States. Ultimately, the project suggests that scholarly efforts to assess fissures in U.S. Protestantism have focused too much on controversies over belief and theology—especially those related to evolutionary theory, eschatology, and scriptural inerrancy—and paid far too little attention to the emerging bureaucratic systems of state and corporate surveillance that helped to document, visualize, and disseminate these accusations in the first place.

Transparency or Loopholes: Target Locations, FISA Warrants, and Reasonable Belief

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was a grand compromise. FISA aimed at continued collection of national security intelligence, while preserving American civil liberties from government overreach. This compromise sought to assuage concerns from the tech industry and high-level government officials by providing protection to both from litigation. The FISA comprise was premised on the independence of a specially created judicial court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), overseeing executive power while providing reporting to Congress. A true balance of power. From its inception, FISA's basic foundation for legality is founded on government knowledge of the physical location of targets. This foundation has not aged well as technology has evolved. In addition to technological advances, the law itself has not been updated to reflect the changes in technology. Congress has shown a penchant for reacting to either the executive or the Supreme Court. Congress' reaction to litigation in 2018, the Court's recent ruling in Carpenter, and Special Counsel Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference with subsequent Congressional disclosures, all threaten the vitality of FISA. This article outlines the foundation, covers the technological developments, and exposes flaws in the FISA system. The Article argues the Government, along with the tech industry must rework another grand compromise to ensure the continued vitality of national security surveillance, while continuing to protect American civil liberties from government overreach.

US Surveillance Law, Safe Harbor, and Reforms Since 2013

This White Paper is a submission to the Belgian Privacy Authority for its December 18, 2015 Forum on “The Consequences of the Judgment in the Schrems Case.” The Forum discusses the decision by the European Court of Justice in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner that the EU/US Safe Harbor was unlawful under the EU Data Protection Directive, particularly due to concerns about US surveillance law.For the Forum, I have been asked to comment on two issues:1) Is US surveillance law fundamentally compatible with EU data protection law? 2) What actions and reforms has the US taken since the Snowden revelations began in June 2013?The White Paper draws on my background as a scholar of both EU data protection law and US surveillance law. It addresses serious misunderstandings of US national security law, reflected in official statements made in the Schrems case and elsewhere. It has three chapters:(1) The fundamental equivalence of the United States and EU member States as constitutional democracies under the rule of law. In the Schrems decision, the US was criticized for failing to ensure “a level of protection of fundamental rights essentially equivalent to that guaranteed in the EU legal order.” This chapter critiques that finding, instead showing that the United States has strict rule of law, separation of powers, and judicial oversight of law enforcement and national security surveillance, which together make the US legal order “essentially equivalent” to the EU legal order.(2) The Section 702 PRISM and Upstream programs are reasonable and lawful responses to changing technology. The Advocate General’s opinion in the Schrems case said that the PRISM program gave the NSA “unrestricted access to mass data” stored in the US, and that Section 702 enabled NSA access “in a generalised manner” for “all persons and all means of electronic communications.” This chapter refutes those claims, which appear to be based in part on incorrect stories in the press. Instead, the Section 702 programs operate with judicial supervision and subject to numerous safeguards and limitations. They examine the communications only of targeted individuals, and only for listed foreign intelligence purposes. The total number of individuals targeted under Section 702 in 2013 was 92,707, a tiny fraction of Internet users in the EU or globally.(3) The US Congress and executive branch have instituted two dozen significant reforms to surveillance law and practice since 2013. The Schrems decision said that US privacy protections must be evaluated in the “current factual and legal context,” but did not address the numerous changes put in place since 2013. This chapter provides a readable explanation of each of these actions, which together constitute the biggest set of pro-privacy actions in US surveillance law since creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978.

Participatory Evaluation of the Relative Livestock Populations and the Assessment of the Status and Impacts of Newcastle Disease in Rural Communities of Two Northeastern States, Nigeria

Livestock is an important component of food security in many developing nations. However, animal diseases continue to undermine animal production and public health efforts thus widening poverty gap. Unfortunately, the conventional and what seems to be inefficient “top to bottom” disease surveillance and control policies are heavily relied upon such that negative impacts of diseases are underestimated. Participatory disease surveillance (PDS) techniques using semi-structured questioning assisted by key informants targeting focus groups were employed in 60 randomly selected villages of two Nigerian States during the years 2012 to 2014. Haemagglutination and ELISA tests to detect antibodies to Newcastle disease (ND) were conducted on 950 poultry sera. The status and economic burden of Newcastle disease and the relative livestock populations and some ethno-veterinary practices of these livestock farming communities were brought to the fore. Poultry, goats, cattle, sheep and pigs in descending order were the major livestock species kept in the study areas to which Kendalls Coefficient of Concordance (W = 0.9) agreed strongly. Accordingly, ND, lousiness, fowl pox and coccidiosis with percentage scores of ND-52%, Fowl Pox-31%, lousiness-17% and Salmonellosis-10% were important causes of poultry morbidity and mortality. ND sero-prevalence was 39%, relative morbidity; mortality and case fatality rates of 95%, 78% and 82% respectively were appraised. Again ND, coccidiosis, ectoparasitism and fowl pox were reported as seasonal poultry diseases (W = 0.6). Solanum nodiflorum and Momordica balsalmina were used to treat ND. Major livestock kept, and the ND status and effects in poultry in these livestock farming communities are here reported. Institutionalization of PDS would better inform strategic livestock policy reforms, and improve national food security and diseases surveillance and reporting system in Nigeria.

Foreword: The NSA and the Legal Regime for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

This paper introduces a symposium, to be published in I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 9 ISJLP __ (2014), entitled, NSA Surveillance: Security, Privacy, and Civil Liberty, which appears online in working draft form. The paper traces the history of electronic surveillance law by way of explaining how our laws have evolved to a stage where lawyers could plausibly defend the government’s entitlement to capture and store an immense volume of our telephone and online communications, as well as metadata about both. It goes on to introduce the other papers in the symposium and concludes by arguing the importance of executive branch acquiescence in such statutory limits as Congress may impose on national security surveillance as it affects Americans.

Social Web mining and exploitation for serious applications: Technosocial Predictive Analytics and related technologies for public health, environmental and national security surveillance

This paper explores Technosocial Predictive Analytics (TPA) and related methods for Web “data mining” where users’ posts and queries are garnered from Social Web (“Web 2.0”) tools such as blogs, micro-blogging and social networking sites to form coherent representations of real-time health events. The paper includes a brief introduction to commonly used Social Web tools such as mashups and aggregators, and maps their exponential growth as an open architecture of participation for the masses and an emerging way to gain insight about people's collective health status of whole populations. Several health related tool examples are described and demonstrated as practical means through which health professionals might create clear location specific pictures of epidemiological data such as flu outbreaks.

Proposal of a framework for evaluating military surveillance systems for early detection of outbreaks on duty areas

BackgroundIn recent years a wide variety of epidemiological surveillance systems have been developed to provide early identification of outbreaks of infectious disease. Each system has had its own strengths and weaknesses. In 2002 a Working Group of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) produced a framework for evaluation, which proved suitable for many public health surveillance systems. However this did not easily adapt to the military setting, where by necessity a variety of different parameters are assessed, different constraints placed on the systems, and different objectives required. This paper describes a proposed framework for evaluation of military syndromic surveillance systems designed to detect outbreaks of disease on operational deployments.MethodsThe new framework described in this paper was developed from the cumulative experience of British and French military syndromic surveillance systems. The methods included a general assessment framework (CDC), followed by more specific methods of conducting evaluation. These included Knowledge/Attitude/Practice surveys (KAP surveys), technical audits, ergonomic studies, simulations and multi-national exercises. A variety of military constraints required integration into the evaluation. Examples of these include the variability of geographical conditions in the field, deployment to areas without prior knowledge of naturally-occurring disease patterns, the differences in field sanitation between locations and over the length of deployment, the mobility of military forces, turnover of personnel, continuity of surveillance across different locations, integration with surveillance systems from other nations working alongside each other, compatibility with non-medical information systems, and security.ResultsA framework for evaluation has been developed that can be used for military surveillance systems in a staged manner consisting of initial, intermediate and final evaluations. For each stage of the process parameters for assessment have been defined and methods identified.ConclusionThe combined experiences of French and British syndromic surveillance systems developed for use in deployed military forces has allowed the development of a specific evaluation framework. The tool is suitable for use by all nations who wish to evaluate syndromic surveillance in their own military forces. It could also be useful for civilian mobile systems or for national security surveillance systems.

An Elegant Fix for Polymer Electrolytes

The heart of modern electronics may be built from circuitry, but the lungs which breath life into such devices are batteries. Lithium batteries are increasingly dominating the consumer portable electronic and telecommunications markets and will power the implantable biomedical devices, hybrid electric vehicles and military/ national security communication and surveillance equipment of tomorrow. Current commercial batteries are based on ‘lithium-ion’ technology in which the anode consists of graphite or a similar material and the electrolyte is a liquid or polymer-gel containing molecular solvents/plasticizers. 1-3 Such batteries suffer a number of disadvantages relative to lithium-metal anode solid polymer electrolyte ~lithium-metal-polymer or LMP! batteries. 1-3 The use of graphite instead of lithium metal reduces the energy density while the liquid or gel electrolytes may leak or cause the battery to explode if volatilized. The molecular solvents used are typically not compatible with lithium metal. It is also difficult to easily adapt such batteries to the variable shapes and sizes desired for portable electronics.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978: The Role of Symbolic Politics

Since 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has governed United States intelligence gathering for national security purposes. Enacted in response to the Watergate–era civil rights violations and revelations of a Senate investigation headed by Senator Frank Church that other presidential administrations had authorized similar warrantless surveillance, FISA established a statutory framework for national security surveillance. Understanding FISA contributes to the study of criminal justice policymaking because law enforcement and intelligence communities view it as an important tool for combatting espionage and terrorism. This article examines the enactment of FISA from the perspective of symbolic politics.